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An Interview with the MBA Association President

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Every year in January, a first-year Illinois MBA student begins his/her term as the MBA Association president. This year, Corey Painter was elected to this prestigious position. Since Corey has been the MBAA president for a couple of months, I decided that now was the perfect time to gather his thoughts on his position and his vision for the rest of the year.

What does the president of the MBAA do?

I believe the MBAA president has two main responsibilities to be effective. The first is to facilitate the accomplishment of MBAA members, MBAA club officers, and the remaining MBAA board members goals and initiatives. This is achieved through making suggestions, connecting people, providing resources, and establishing an open and cooperative environment. The second responsibility that the president has is to be the communication channel between students, faculty, and administration. As the voice of the MBAA, the president must always be knowledgeable about what the members want and need and must always be willing to speak on behalf of the members.

Why did you decide to run for president of the MBAA?

I ran for president of the MBAA because I believed that I had some ideas to improve the MBAA and the experiences students had in the Illinois MBA program. I was passionate that I could make significant, meaningful contributions immediately and leave the MBAA better for future Illinois MBA classes.

What improvements do you think your board will make to the MBAA over the next year?

The board has resolved to continue working to improve overall communication and communication between administration, faculty, and students. The board is also working to further document historical data for current and future reference.

What are some goals that you would like to accomplish?

The board would like to find more high quality, sustainable professional development events to help even the mix between social and professional development events. We would also like to have better documented proof of the value the MBAA adds to the MBA experience.

What can prospective students look forward to seeing the MBAA do next year?

Prospective students can look forward to the MBAA focusing and improving successful events and programs, while cutting redundant and unsuccessful events and programs. Becoming more focused frees up resources to make improvements to historical events, develop new events, and utilize the ideas and energy inherent of an incoming class.

What do you think is the biggest challenge of being the MBAA president?

I would say the biggest challenge of being the MBAA president is allocating resources. Whether the resource is money, time, or people, the resource seems to always be in limited supply. Each situation presents its own challenges with respect to resources and regardless of the similarity to previous situations; there is not a formula or method to follow in terms of allocation.

Having been on the 2011 MBAA board, I am especially happy to hear the passion Corey and the rest of the board seem to have in regard to improving the overall experience of the Illinois MBA program. Like most organizations, you can only hope that those who replace you do a better job than you did in your position. I am confident that the current MBA Association board will make me and the rest of my team very proud—I look forward to seeing what the MBAA has planned for the rest of the semester!